


Long Way Home

by RingThroughSpace



Category: Discworld - Terry Pratchett
Genre: Elephants, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-18
Updated: 2015-09-18
Packaged: 2018-04-21 08:55:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4822910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RingThroughSpace/pseuds/RingThroughSpace
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They took the long way round and saw the elephant.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Long Way Home

"Go on," the driver said, in his foreign accent. "It won't hurt you."

Granny gave him a side-eye. It was a good one. She'd spent months practicing.

"Isn't it a bit small?" she asked.

The driver shook his head. "She's as large as life." He looked her over. "She'd be bigger if you got off that broom."

Granny seemed inclined to argue the point, but Nanny -- her feet flat on the ground -- already stepped forward to touch her. The elephant raised her snout and wrapped it around Nanny's hand.

Magrat stood back and studied the elephant, trying to compare it to Goodie Whemper's notes. "It is a giantee beeft," she'd written. "It has legges like pillars, and ears like fans, and it has teeth (called tufks) like fpears. But its defining feature is its fnout, which is like a water-hofe --"

"It ain't a water hose it reminds me of," Nanny said, and Magrat realized she'd spoken out loud. "What it reminds me of is my Edward's-"

"Gytha!" Granny cut in.

"Well, how would you know?" Nanny said. "Magrat will learn, won't you?"

"I-" Magrat could feel the blush spreading up her face. "I think it's rather long for-" She stopped. There was no way she could complete that sentence. Nanny was grinning at her knowingly. "It has a tail like a brush," she finished. "Goodie Whemper was right about that."

Nanny was cautiously unwrapping the trunk from around her hand. "Persistant, is what she is," she muttered. "Like my Jason."

Granny shook her head. "You're all wrong," she said. She brought her broom down and perched on the elephant's saddle ("which is called a howdah," Mistress Whemper had carefully recorded). "She's all of those things and none." The elephant brought her trunk up and Granny patted it cautiously. "What she is," she declared, "is an elephant."


End file.
